


Ethan Hunt and the Suspicious iPad Thing

by Remy (iamremy)



Series: Remy's tumblr fics [6]
Category: Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, silliness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-26
Updated: 2014-09-26
Packaged: 2018-02-18 21:17:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2362454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamremy/pseuds/Remy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <a href="http://spnxbookworm.tumblr.com/">spnxbookworm</a>
  <strong> asked:</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>Either MI fandom or Avengers. You choose ^^. Pairing : Clintasha or Ethan/Will. Prompt : Hurt/comfort type fic.</em>
</p><p><strong>Summary:</strong> Will's up to something, and Ethan is determined to find out what.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ethan Hunt and the Suspicious iPad Thing

**1**

Ethan Hunt knows his team very well. He can predict their moods from their expressions, their thoughts from their body language, and their activities from how long it takes to pick up the phone. He’s very fluent in reckless-idiots-ese, after all. 

Still, it catches him by surprise when he comes home one day to find Will sitting still on the couch, staring off morosely into space.

"What’s wrong?" he asks, putting his bag aside and sitting down next to Will, kicking his shoes off.

"Nothing," Will answers dully. "I’m absolutely fine."

"Sure you are," Ethan snorts. "Come on, out with it - what’s up?"

"It’s nothing," Will repeats, a little more insistently this time.

"Upsetting intel?" guesses Ethan, now feeling truly concerned.

"Nah."

"Someone say something?"

Will snorts. “No.”

"iPad broke?"

"I’d just go out and buy a new one instead of moping."

"Then what is it?"

"It’s  _nothing,_  Ethan, I’m fine,” Will says emphatically. “I’m fine. Now - what are we having for dinner?”

"That was the worst subject-changer I’ve ever heard," Ethan informs him, "and believe me, I’ve heard many."

"I’m thinking meatloaf," Will answers. "Haven’t had meatloaf in some time."

Ethan sighs, and resolves to try later.

**2**

_Later_  means that night in bed. His strategy is to pull the covers off Will and refuse to return them until Will tells him what’s up.

He conveniently forgets that Will is smarter than him.

Fifteen minutes later he’s shivering in his shorts, curled under a paper-thin blanket while Will is stretched out under the duvet. Will only lets him share after he promises never to hog again.

**3**

He tries again at breakfast the next morning. Will stuffs pancakes in his face and doesn’t answer.

**4**

He calls Benji and Jane, in turns. Neither of them can think of anything that might be wrong. Feeling more confused than before, Ethan wonders uneasily if everything’s okay.

**5**

He exits the bathroom from his evening shower to find Will hunched over his iPad. The minute Will notices him, however, he locks the screen and tosses it aside like it’s made of lava.

"What were you doing?" Ethan asks suspiciously.

"Nothing," Will answers instantly. "Absolutely nothing."

Ethan is, obviously, not convinced. “Give me the iPad.”

"No," Will replies. "Use your own."

"Will."

"You mess up my bookmarks."

“ _Will.”_

"And download viruses."

Ethan just gives him an unimpressed look. Will stares back, every inch as obstinate as Ethan. Ethan sighs, looks away, and then looks up again with a very suspicious glint in his eyes. “I have my methods, you know.”

"Sure you do," Will answers, grinning smugly.

Ethan’s only reply is to smirk at him - and tackle him.

**6**

Their wrestling match/tickling war ends up being the cause of death of a table lamp, Will’s shirt and the dresser. Ethan still doesn’t know what Will was doing, and Will refuses to tell.

**7**

He tries unlocking the iPad when Will’s out on a grocery run, tapping in combination after combination and hoping the next one’s it. He knows he could always ask Benji or Luther, but for some reason he feels like maybe he should try first, in case it’s something private.

Of course, he’s not counting on the iPad giving him the finger after a certain number of tries. “Oh, shit,” he whispers to himself. The iPad is  _locked_.

**8**

What’s he going to tell Will? He knows he can go buy another one, but what’s he going to do about Will’s data? There isn’t enough time to show the iPad to Benji or Luther (which, to be honest, he probably should have done that in the first place). Will’s going to be back any second.

He goes for distracting tactics.

**9**

Will comes home to find the apartment dark, dimly lit only by a few candles here and there. Curious, he heads into the kitchen to find that Ethan’s decorated the table with a fancy tablecloth and their best china, and even an ornate candlestand he didn’t know they owned.

"What’s going on?" he asks, raising an eyebrow.

"I just wanted to have a nice dinner," Ethan replies brightly. "I cooked, see?" He gestures towards the Chinese.

Will sniffs at it experimentally. “You couldn’t  _possibly_  have cooked it in the time it took me to buy milk and eggs. It’s take-out, isn’t it?”

"You got me." Ethan refuses to be embarrassed. "Well - sit down."

Will does, but the look of suspicion does not leave his face.

Ethan forces small talk throughout dinner, but he does not miss the way Will’s eyes keep darting in the direction of the bedroom. Something’s up with him and whatever he was doing on the iPad, and Ethan’s determined to find out.

**10**

It takes Will three seconds to discover the ruined iPad, but to Ethan’s shock he doesn’t kill him. “You’re not mad?” he asks for the fourth time.

"Nah," replies Will casually, powering up his Macbook. "It’s all good. I’ll get Benji to fix it." He doesn’t ask what Ethan was doing with the iPad in the first place.

Feeling like he’s missing something, Ethan rolls over in bed and closes his eyes. He listens to Will tapping away next to him, and wishes that he could read minds.

**11**

He finds out in the middle of the night, when he’s woken up by a strangled yell. Immediately he’s alert and tense, hand already reaching for the gun in his bedside drawer. “What is it?” he asks frantically, looking around for the threat.

Will’s still sitting up in bed, Macbook in his lap. “It’s dead!” he exclaims, looking positively anguished.

"What’s dead?" asks Ethan, waving the gun around and looking for a dead body somewhere in the bedroom.

"My pet!" Will replies, sounding absolutely devastated.

Ethan doesn’t put the gun down. “We don’t  _have_ a pet.”

Will looks up at him in disbelief. “Clearly, I’m very upset right now, Ethan.  _You could at least be a little more sensitive_.”

"About what?" asks Ethan irritably. "The dead pet that  _we don’t own_?” It’s the middle of the fucking night and he’s exhausted, he doesn’t have time for this shit.

Will glares at him, his nose slightly red. Oh no. That’s a bad sign. “Will,” Ethan tries, taking on a placating tone, “Will, I feel like I’m missing something here, honey. Care to explain?”

"You’re so insensitive," Will informs him huffily.

"Will." Ethan’s reaching the end of his tether.

With a heavy, put-upon sigh, Will turns the laptop so the screen’s facing Ethan. It’s a picture of a dead dog - in 8-bit.

"That’s a game," Ethan says, utterly dumbfounded. "That’s not a real dead dog. That’s a fake dead dog."

"Fuck you, he’s real to me," sniffs Will. "And now he’s dead."

Ethan takes a closer look. It seems to be some kind of game, something like the Tamagotchi thing. And it looks like Will’s killed his pet from - Ethan squints -  _neglect_.

"Neglect?" he repeats, realizing that this is probably what Will had been doing on the iPad.

"Yeah," Will tells him. "He didn’t like that I had dinner with you." He scrunches up his nose in disgust. "Second pet I killed. I am a  _horrible_ human being.”

"No you’re not," Ethan contradicts, but Will goes right on.

"Yes I am. Bosco didn’t deserve to die, and neither did Mr. Sprinkles. But they’re dead anyway. Because I killed them."

"Are you fucking serious right now." He  _so_  doesn’t have time for this.

Will glares at him.

"You are a  _grown man_ ,” Ethan informs Will. “An  _adult_. Why are you beating yourself up over the death of two fake dogs?”

"Bosco was a cat."

"I don’t care."

Will sighs in resignation, and all of a sudden Ethan feels horrible. “All right, I’m sorry,” he cajoles, sliding an arm around Will’s shoulders. He uses his other hand to shut off the Macbook and put it aside. “Next time we’ll give them a proper funeral and everything.” He’s only half-joking.

"No, I’m done," Will informs him. "I’ve  _had_  it with this dumb fucking game.”

"Why are you so upset about it, then?" asks Ethan, surprised.

Will burrows into Ethan’s side. “Benji challenged me, he bet that I couldn’t keep a cat  _or_  a dog alive. I told him he was wrong. Clearly, he wasn’t.”

Ethan would facepalm, if his arm wasn’t already around Will and his free hand tugging at the duvet. “Why do you accept challenges from Benji?”

Will frowns. “It’s a matter of honor and dignity, Ethan.”

“ _Video games_?”

"Don’t be so judgmental," Will says. "I know for a fact that Jane kicked your ass in Wii Tennis."

Ethan pauses. “Okay,” he concedes. He wonders if he can strike a deal with Will. “Don’t tell anyone about that, and I won’t mention the deaths of Bosco and Mr. Sprinkles to anyone.”

Will considers it. “Done.”

**12**

Will’s almost asleep when Ethan asks, “Seriously, though -  _Mr. Sprinkles_?”

"You couldn’t score even once against Jane."

"Touche."


End file.
